"The works in the "Portraits" series exemplify the coexistence of oppositional states: control and submission, opacity and porosity. Each framed topography resists the rigid boundaries of its maple frames and the mask of cotton threads stretched within it. Characteristic of Weiss’s work, frames and other indicators of value are integral to the object itself: both the volcanic topography and the delicate threads reining it back are defined by their relationship to the frame. By confounding the slippery connotations of formal and material characteristics—casting compound reads as molten material, maple reads as fluid matter—Weiss unravels the seemingly “stable” preconceptions of stationary-moving, heavy-light, strong-fragile, real-facsimile." - Pam Campanaro, curator
